Dear Colleagues,
The last messages have just been posted (numbers 108 to 113), so this FAO conference on "Tailoring rural advisory services to family farms" is now officially closed.
I wish to sincerely thank all of you who participated actively in this conference. Like Deogratias Lwezaura (Message 85), I too wish to congratulate these people for their "remarkable contributions", covering so many different relevant aspects (too numerous to mention here) of rural advisory services for different categories of family farms in different countries around the world.
I remind you that the Background Document to the conference is available on the web at http://www.fao.org/3/a-at652e.pdf (70 KB). In addition, all of the messages are available on the web, at https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A0=RAS-L and, in chronological order, at https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind1412&L=RAS-L&O=D&H=0&D=1&T=1 . The message archives are searchable, with a 'free text' search button on the right hand side of the webpage.
The conference ran for just 18 days. There were 235 subscribers when the conference began on 1 December when the conference began and the numbers rose to 356 people on 18 December when the conference finished. Of these, 58 people (i.e. 16%) submitted at least one message. People were asked to introduce themselves in their first message and they typically provided their full work address and a description of their professional background and current occupation. Based on the address, an analysis was carried out of participation by country, geographical area and work place. Note, the analysis is based on where people were living when they posted the message and does not indicate where they come from originally.
Of the 113 messages, 47% came from people living in Asia; 31% from Africa; 7% from Latin America and the Caribbean; 6% from Oceania; and 4% each from North America and Europe. A total of 96 messages (i.e. 85%) were posted by people living in developing countries.
The messages came from people living in 34 different countries. The greatest number came from people living in India (35); Cameroon (10); Australia and Uganda (7 each); the United States (5); and Ghana, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan and Uzbekistan (3 each).
Of the 113 messages, 31% were from people in research organisations (mostly national research centres with 3 messages from international agricultural research centres); 19% from universities; 15% from people working in Government ministries or Government bodies; 12% from non-governmental organizations; 10% from independent consultants; 7% from farmers or people working for farmer organisations; 3% from the private sector and the remaining 4% from people working in the UN, development agencies and agricultural colleges.
I would like to thank again the people who provided very useful and constructive comments on the conference background document: Magdalena Blum, Delgermaa Chuluunbaatar and Andrea Sonnino (all from the FAO Research and Extension Unit); Sarah Lowder and Jakob Skoet (both from the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Division); Rasheed Sulaiman (Centre for Research on Innovation and Science Policy); and Kristin Davies (GFRAS Executive Secretary).
And finally, from myself and on behalf of the other participants, I would like to give a special thanks to each of the 58 people who made this e-mail conference such a successful conference, by dedicating your time and effort to sharing your knowledge, ideas, experiences and viewpoints with the rest of us.
With best wishes
John
John Ruane, PhD
Research and Extension Unit,
UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Viale delle Terme di Caracalla,
00153 Rome, Italy
E-mail address: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/en/
E-mail conference website: http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/264776/
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